CJ Stander will miss Ireland’s matches against Scotland and Italy in the Guinness Six Nations after suffering a facial injury in the defending champions’ defeat to England.
The No.8 is facing four weeks on the sidelines after an Ireland injury update revealed he sustained suspected fractures of his eye socket and cheekbone in the 32-20 defeat in Dublin.
Keith Earls, who came off at half-time against the Red Rose at the Aviva Stadium, is another doubt for the trip to Edinburgh to face Scotland at BT Murrayfield.
He suffered a hip pointer injury and will be managed across the early part of the week, while Devin Toner and Garry Ringrose have been ruled out of the Scotland game with ankle and hamstring injuries, respectively.
All will be further assessed by the Ireland medical team over the next 24 hours. Wing Andrew Conway has been released from camp this week with a tight calf.
Reflecting on Ireland’s defeat in the opening round of the Championship and their determination to bounce straight back, prop Tadhg Furlong said: “You just recalibrate, look and learn.
“We’ve been on a good run, and look, this is just probably a bit of a reality check for us. It’s important now that we look after the bodies, take on what we can learn from the game and it’s a massive game in Scotland next weekend for us now.
“Look, it’s disappointing. First of all we’re at home and we have a really good record here, but again it comes back to doing what we can do.
“Did we implement that at the start of the game? Not really. Was there some really good play by England? Absolutely. Can we control that going into the next game? Absolutely.
“It’s about refocusing and working hard and our pride, it gets dented, it’s never nice losing at home on the first weekend of the Six Nations. I suppose we have to take it as a learning.”
